Australia Day and such

Well, we ended up going to Manly beach on Saturday and it ended up being 108 degrees near where we stay!! Yikes. We were so glad we were at the ocean, where the water was quite cool. It felt so good. We found that there was a fish and chips restaurant with Air conditioning, not common here. We had a great lunch there before heading to the beach. Oh yeah, and before that I had some amazing chocolate, banana crepes at a place called, "the Bald Guys chocolate" or something like that. Yum.

At the beach they were having a surf carnival, with lots of races going on. Fun to watch, Erik had wanted to see one! There were also lots of strong currents so there was only a small area flagged off for swimming, but that didn't deter us. There was a place to rent surfboards and boogie boards, so Andrew tried surfing again. I thought he did great. He said it was challenging with the currents. Bryn got a strange painful rash on the back of his knees. We don't know what it was, but it went away after about 30 minutes, we're calling it a jelly or a blue bottle! Sounds better than sea lice or some such.

On the way home, Andrew and Bryn really wanted to eat in Newtown at Thai riffic, they had gone there once before. After a train ride and some walking we found it about 9 p.m. It was a great place and amazing food.

Andrew and Kari finished packing and getting ready and left via taxi with Erik about 1 p.m. on Sunday. Sadness! It was so fun to be together here. Erik thought he could easily take a train back here, but it didn't work out well, he ended up in Bondi and it took him over 2 hours to get home, with lots of walking. He got turned around at Town Hall and was going the wrong way for awhile, that doesn't happen often to him, he's great at figuring out where we are. Andrew and Bryn are good at it too.

Andrew and Kari emailed that they slept nearly all of the 19 hours to Chicago, yay for Unisom! They went from 108 degrees here to about 8 degrees in Iowa, what a shock!

Monday was Australia Day, 220 years from when the British landed in Australia. First we went to an aboriginal festival, they weren't celebrating the same thing, but celebrating their survival despite of it. Ryan got to play some footie, Australian rules football with some kids, mostly they were practicing their kicking, fun! And then we went downtown and saw the fireworks and show at Darling Harbour. It was raining, but a warm rain. I think it kept the crowds down some. We enjoyed it and were home before 10.

Yesterday we spent at immigration getting Bryn and Ryan's visas figured out, hopefully all's well now. Whew.

Today, Erik, Shane, Bryn and Ryan went to Manly beach. Bryn rented a surfboard, but I haven't heard how that went. I'm off to see a movie with the students, called Ten Canoes. All for now,

Carla

Friday report

Hi,

First of all, Erik is better. Yeah! His fever finally quit yesterday after 6 days. He's pretty wiped out, but keeping up with the kids and students pretty well. Also, Andrew decided not to stay the extra two weeks. He was bummed, but it would have cost an extra $1000 and that is a bit much. I know Kari's glad to have him with her on the 19+ hour flight to Chicago and on to KC. We will sure miss them here. It's really been such a chance of a lifetime for us to be here as a family. They are such great kids, we are so blessed. Tonight we went to a nice bistro so the kids could try some lamb shanks before they left. I got prawns which were yummy.

Yesterday afternoon we walked down to the Seafood Market, several miles away. It was quite impressive. Think of Pike's market and times it by 6! They had so many varieties of seafood. About 10 varieties of prawns and lots of lobster and the strangest huge giant crabs and blue crab and on and on. We saw a lobster whose body was 2 feet long. Maybe bigger. Erik was practically drooling, he loved it so much. We bought our supper-some rock lobster, banana prawns, and New Zealand green mussle, plus a gorgeous loaf of Damper bread. Erik and I brought the food home to the fridge and worked on paperwork while the kids took the ferry to Manly and played for several hours in the waves. We had a late yummy meal!

Today we left with the group this morning for the Australian Museum. A very interesting museum, I think you would love it if you have time when you're here, Pappa and Patricia. It was air conditioned and had lots of artifacts and samples of the interesting birds and animals in Australia. It also had a great Indigenous Australian exhibit.

This afternoon we spent at the Art Gallery of NSW. It was interesting too. We walked thru the Royal Botanic Gardens, they are gorgeous. We saw a Wollemi pine that was older than the one we saw at our lodge in the Blue Mts and lots of flying fox, huge bats. I mean huge! Their bodies are the size of squirrels.

We did some souvenir shopping and are back at "home" now. The kids are at the park playing cricket, rugby and frisbee. I'm doing laundry and such. Tommorow is their last day here and we plan to head to Coogee beach. It's supposed to be 95.

Hope all's well with you, send me an email and let me know if you're reading. nilsen6@comcast.net I am curious.

Carla

Blue Mountains, etc.

Hi all,

It's been a week since I last wrote, wow time is flying by.  You might think we just sit around with nothing to do, but so far, that hasn't been true.  Although we have had time for a few pinochle games and some Bananograms.  I'll try to hit the highlights of our week.

Last Thursday we did play a Nilsen game of modified cricket.  Fun!  Bryn got me out the first try.  I think he called it a golden goose, or something.  Kari says it's a golden duck!  It was so hot, nearly 100. We thought we'd play a little and then cool off in the pool.  Well it started to rain and cooled everything off, so we didn't swim.  We ate dinner at Flying Fajita Sisters.  The chef is from Seattle and Jeff and Faye know him.  It was a great meal.  They have a "Wall of Pain" which has different hot sauces on it.  You can't even take the ones off the top shelf without first checking with the waitress.  Bryn tried one from the middle shelf, "baboon sauce" and it was hot, he was hurting for a while!

Friday after lectures we went to the Taronga Zoo.  It was amazing, our first look at Australian wildlife except for the cockatoos and cat birds and lorakeets we saw at Jeff and Faye's.   We saw Wallabies, Kangaroos, Koalas (They get such little nutrition from Eucalyptus leaves that they sleep 20 hours a day.), Snakes (I didn't look at them!), Kookaburra, Echidna, and so many more.  There was one animal that grows a flap of skin to protect its babies, it doesn't have a permanent pouch.  They also had lots of other animals.  Erik, Andrew and Ryan went to a talk on spiders and saw them feed the koalas.  They had lions, tigers and bears!  Also, giraffe, elephants, snow leopard, seal, fairy penguins, otters and more.  It was very enjoyable.  We took the ferry to get there, kind of like a harbour cruise every time you take a ferry.    Mom and Dad, we didn't take an official harbour cruise but have been on ferries to 4 different stops so feel we've seen a good amount.  We used your Christmas money to buy entrance to the Aquarium, so thanks again!

Saturday morning we left for the Blue Mountains.  We had a scientist along, Howard, who was so knowledgable about Australia's history and the aboriginal culture, animals and plants and so much more.  It was great learning from him.  He told us about the amazing discovery of the Wollemi pine-in 1994.  They thought it had been extinct for 60 million years.  There are 100 or so trees growing in a remote area of the Blue Mountains  and they have done tissue samples and grown more of the pines and you can buy them from the Botanic Gardens here.  Pretty amazing.  We went to Scenic world and went on a short railroad ride straight down a hill where it used to be a coal mine.  It felt straight down, but was 56% grade, the steepest in the world.  We hiked around the forest and Ryan spotted two lyre birds, they mimic other birds and sounds.  They have a gorgeous tail sort of like a peacock.  We took a gondola back up the mountain and went on another hike and saw all sorts of interesting plants and trees.  Then we went to an ecolodge, a very gorgeous  place with wonderful food and accomodations.

Saturday we went to Jenolan caves and had a 3 hour tour.  It was great.  It reminded me of L&C Caverns in MT, except it was bigger and older (the oldest in the world at 450 million years) and had lots of white crystals.  Very interesting.  We had a picnic afterwards by a little river and some of the students and our 4 jumped off a rock cliff into the water.  As we were walking back, Ryan was a ways ahead of us and he saw a platypus, we could see the bubbles where he'd gone under, they are hard to see, so that was cool.   Saturday night we had pavlova for dessert with passion fruit, kiwi and strawberry.  Yum.  We had a campfire, shared a favorite childhood memory and learned some new songs.  Then we went to a clearing away from the trees and looked at the stars.  They were absolutely gorgeous.  We saw the southern cross and the crab nebula and a very bright, long lasting shooting star.  What a night.

Sunday the students took a 5 km hike down to the Grand Canyon.  Ryan and I stayed back with Erik.  He'd been sick with a fever since Friday night.  We went to a hospital there, Katoombah, and he has a UTI.  The meds haven't knocked it down yet and we were at a hospital here yesterday.  He got a second antibiotic and is marginally better.  He was well enough today to go reef fishing about 5 miles from Sydney.  He and our boys and 5 students rented a fishing boat.  They caught 16 keepers and we had a fish feed tonight.  It was yummy.  They caught a pig fish, a breem and quite a few fat heads.  5 of the 9 got sea sick.  Luckily Bryn and Ryan escaped it.  They got to see dolphins, including a baby one, and fairy penguins.  I'm envious of that!

The gang is at a play right now of Edgar Allen Poe, Tales of a tell tale heart.  Ryan and I decided to hang out here instead.  We're exhausted.

Andrew is trying to work it out so he can stay 2 weeks longer.  It's only $100 to change his ticket and he'd love to be here for the week at the Aboriginal camp.  He'll miss the first 2 weeks of classes, but he feels it'd be worth it.  It's been so good to have he and Kari here with us.  They've become good friends with the LC students, who are such a great group!  Kari's not looking forward to the 19 hour flight by herself, can't blame her.  She leaves on Sunday.

Well I am sure I am leaving out so many great things, but I'm falling asleep.  Check out my pictures, I keep them pretty up to date.  www.picasaweb.google.com/carlanilsen

All for now,

Carla

  

Beach Fun

Hi,

I've added new photos from our day at the beach so thought I should tell a little about it.  The nearest ocean beach to us is Coogee.  It's also where our friends, Gwen and Brian, live so we'd been to it once before.  It's a great beach.  We rented 2 maxi taxis to get all the students out there together rather than take the buses.  On Tuesday, it had been a King Tide, the highest tide in 20 years, so yesterday it was still pretty high and the waves were immense.  Playing in them could easily knock you over.  I got a pictures of some crazy guys jumping off of the nearby cliffs, although that was a restricted area and they announced over the loud speaker that they couldn't do that.  The beaches are well patrolled, they have certain areas that they watch over, you stay between the yellow and red flags.  Kari saw one blue bottle jellyfish yesterday in the water.  I guess sometimes there are too many of them so you can't swim.  There are great restaurants and shopping right near the beach.  We found a deal.  You had to buy a soda, $4 and then you got a $2 steak and a $2 salad and fries.  So for $8, (about $6 something US) we got a great meal.  Most everyone is a little sunburned today, even though they put on lots of sunscreen, and tired!  It takes a lot out of you dealing with all the sand, sun and waves!  Don't you feel sorry for us!!!  

Today the students and Erik are at lectures until noon.  The boys and I are doing laundry and math and then may head to the mall.  We think we might play cricket this afternoon and then go in the nice pool right across the street from us.  Sounds fun to me!

All for now, must go eat breakfast before they put it away.

Hope all's well there with everyone reading!

Carla

Early morning here in Sydney, Jan 14th

Hi.  Well lots has happened since I last wrote.  Last Thursday, Erik and the boys went to a little par 3 golf course near Jeff and Faye's.  They had fun, but it wasn't a world class golf course.  All part of the adventure.    Friday, we mostly packed, did laundry, shopped at the mall-eating crepes, and visited.  We had take away Chinese food from a place near J&F's.  

Saturday morning, at 7:30 a.m., Erik and Ryan returned the rental car at the airport and were there to greet the LC students.  They didn't have any troubles with their flight or customs and were to Arundel house by about 10 a.m.  They all were pretty tired, but doing well.  (Kendall was the only one not here yet, she arrived here about 10 p.m.) Faye drove the rest of us and all our stuff here-thanks for everything Jeff and Faye.  After a short orientation meeting with our fearless leader, Nat, the students were given $, their first look at the cool plastic Australian bills and the gold $1 and $2 coins.  Breakfast is provided here, but we cook our own lunch and supper.  Or we can easily get take away too.  There are lots of options around here for good food, so many international choices.  Several students ventured downtown to see the harbour, etc.  We didn't have bus passes yet, so they walked a long way!  Erik and the 3 older kids went out in the evening to brave the crowds for the first day of the Sydney festival.  They went to 5 different parks and heard lots of different bands.  Their favorite was one that included amazing pyrotechnics.  Erik said he was the oldest attendee by far!  Ryan and I enjoyed a quiet evening playing scrabble and watching "My Fair Lady".

Sunday we had an interesting bus tour, ending up on Bondi Beach.  We couldn't swim, it was a hard temptation for the kids, so instead we ate lunch.  We had amazing fish and chips and calamari at the beach restaurant.  I like how they cook it all up for you after you order it, and you can choose how you want the fish cooked.  Yum.  Sunday evening, Erik cooked steaks and kangaroo kebabs on the kitchen's huge broiler oven.  The steaks were great and several liked the roo.  It was a little strange for me.  I might try it again, since this had a weird maranade on it.  Seth tried some too and said his tasted like a combination of duck, tuna and beef!

Erik's had a bad cold, but it hasn't slowed him down much.  Kari and I saw "Australia" on Monday.  We'd heard the Australian version had a different ending, but it was the same as in the states.  Enjoyable.  Ryan and Erik saw "A tale of Desperaux".  Ryan and Bryn bought a cricket set and they played a rousing game of that in the park across the street.

Monday was the first day of lectures and I heard they were good.  I was doing laundry, writing postcards, and helping Ryan with his math.  Tuesday we had an Aboriginal woman, Goori, named Margret teach us.  She was very interesting and we all appreciated hearing her beliefs.  We will see her again the week we are with the aunties and uncles at the Aboriginal fields studies camp.  

Yesterday, we ate a lunch of leftovers and then headed down to the Sydney tower.  It's impressive, held steady by 56 cables.  It is 305 M tall, twice as tall as the Harbour bridge and the 25th tallest inhabitable structure in the world.  It's as tall as 60 giraffes and the same height as the Eiffel Tower.  It's 1506 steps would take an average person about 50 minutes to climb, but the record is just under 7 minutes in a race they hold!  We took the double decker elevator!  We saw great views and even found Arundel house and could see, thru the binoculars, laundry on the roof!  We also went on OZ trek, which was ok, but not the greatest entertainment.

However, then we walked down to the Opera house and saw Le Grand Cirque-Aerial dreams.  Wow, what a great show.  They had the most amazing talent from several countries.  They had a very funny ringmaster who at one point blew up this huge balloon.  It was about 6 feet in diameter and he put it on his head and then got in it.   They had a guy on a bike and 9 women got on it and him and were riding around the stage!  One guy put chairs on top of chairs and was balancing on the top of about 12 chairs.  It was such a great show, we hadn't seen one like it before and were so glad to get to see one in the famous Opera house.

Today is a free day, so our plan is to take all the students to the ocean-Coogee beach.  Should be fun.  I'll try to write more often, so each entry isn't so long, but it's tricky to find time to do everything.

Hope all's well back in the states.  It's supposed to hit 37 degrees on Thursday, interestingly enough that translates into 98.6!

Love,

Carla

G'day- January 8th, 2009

Hi,

I have a few minutes before supper so I'll try to write a little.  We are having lots of fun adventures.  Tuesday was a long, fun, amazing day.  We left here by 9 a.m. with Jeff and Faye, taking their van and our little Yaris.  We drove over to Coogee and met up with friends, Gwen and Brian.  Then we all drove across to The Spit, where we parked the cars and started hiking/bushwalking.  Gwen's daughter and 2 granddaughters and their friends also met up with us.  Two of the girls were 5 and they were troopers, it wasn't an easy hike.  It was pretty warm, maybe 85 degrees.  Thankfully, we were often in the shade in the bush.  Here's a slogan that describes Manly-"Seven miles from Sydney and a thousand miles from care".  The walk passed thru bushland and the waterfront suburbs surrounding Manly with great views of the Harbour and the city.  It's surprising to me, considering that Sydney has about 5 million people, how much bush/wilderness there is close by.  The kids loved all the water dragon lizards we saw, over 20.  The longest was about 2 feet long.  Erik and I even saw a skink.  As we went along the trail, we somehow got separated into about 5 groups.  We didn't know there were a few options along the way and for the last 2 hours we were walking in our own groups.  It was a bummer because Erik and I were together and had all our water and both phones.  The kids were together, but not with any Australians and they had all our food.  We all knew to keep following the signs to Manly and all ended up there in the end.  The views were amazing and it was such an adventure.  After we got to Manly our family went thru the Oceanworld aquarium.  All of them, except me, watched a reptile show and we got to see lots of sealife.  Ryan and I got home with Gwen and Claudia and Sabine by taking the ferry.  It was like a harbour tour for only a few dollars.  We could see people on top of the Harbour Bridge as we got near, yikes it would have been hot up there.

After we got back to Gwen's we ate some yummy date cake and then headed to the beach.  It's neat how they have concrete pools at the edge of the beach with ocean water.  My gang didn't swim there, but it makes  a calmer option for some.  The waves were fun and huge and Erik and kids had a blast.  It sure was a great way to cool off.  We headed back to Brian and Gwen's and had take away Thai food.  It was awesome!  So fun to visit with them and meet some of their grandkids.  Gwen met Marge when they were here a few  years ago.  She loved the idea of taking your grandkids on a trip when they turn 10 and they have started that with their 10 grandkids.  I know Mamma would love to know how her idea has been passed on all the way to Australia!  Brian's daughter Sophie and her husband Lars were there and we followed them home since they were heading the same way we were.  As we were following them we saw a Creative Memories sticker on her car! I couldn't believe it!  Bryn said, "they are us".  They have 3 boys and a girl, the dad is Scandinavian and the mom does CM!  I hope to get to talk to her.

I think I'm writing too much, but this is the only journal I'm doing, so you'll have to skim as you like.

We got up early yesterday and the kids took a surf lesson, they had their own teacher.  They all got up, but it was definitely challenging.  The waves aren't as calm as the ones they tried in Hawaii 8 years ago.  And they end more abruptly.  Erik talked the director into renting boards to them today, so they spent another 3 hours at it this morning.  I freaked out a bit, well, a lot, at one point.  They were so far out there, it seemed dangerous to me.  And there weren't many around them if they had any trouble.   So they were good to me and came in closer.  After eating Aussie burgers, complete with egg, beetroot, pineapple, tomato, lettuce, ham and cheese, and some shopping, we found a great resale shop, the boys went to a little par 3 golf course and Kari and I took naps.  Sorry about that sentence-too long!

We got an email today saying that Bryn and Ryan's visas still aren't right and we have to fix it or leave in 28 days.  So I guess we'll be going to immigrations.  

The students arrive on Saturday morning so the next step in our adventure begins.  It's been so great being here with Jeff and Faye.  They have fed us so well and let us use their van and their home is gorgeous with everything we could need.  And the visiting has been great.  I'm sure most of our next accomodations won't  be nearly this wonderful.  Last night we had dinner with Julia, her boyfriend Gary, and Faye's sister in law, Elaine.  We got to have Christmas pudding with custard, ice cream and fruit, quite a great combination.

Love to all,

Carla

PS I'll try to add more photos tonight to http://picasaweb.google.com/carlanilsen

January 5th, 2009

Hi all,

We are having a great time.  Saturday we picked up Andrew and Kari.  They had spent the night with friends from Graceland.  They'd attended a murder mystery party.  The theme was the 50's and they had fun shopping at St Vincent De Paul, "Vinnies", for their costumers.  After we picked them up we went to the Olympic park.  We played a fun game of mini golf and looked around a little.  Ryan had a Subway sandwich, it was similar except they don't have the oil and vinegar.  The rest of us ate at a Fish and Chips shop and had a great meal.  It was Saturday afternoon about 3 and we had trouble finding an open restaurant.  Lots of people are gone since this is summer vacation for them.  That evening we went to a Lebanese restaurant, where Jeff and Faye have been going for 30 years.  It was very interesting and we all liked almost all of the food!    Gwen and Brian, and J&F's son Tim joined us.

Sunday we spent 4-5 hours at the beach.  It was warm and windy, but we had lots of fun body surfing and boogie boarding in the ocean.  The beaches are great here.  The sun is very strong, I put sun screen on 3 times and am still burned!  Sunday evening we had Domino's Pizza and it was very good.  

Today we took the train down town to Sydney to the Sydney Aquarium.  It was very interesting.  We saw 2 of the 5 dugongs in captivity, quite ugly.  It's hard to believe sailors once thought of them as mermaids, they must have been at sea a long time!  We also saw lots of sharks and a mini blue ringed octopus-about the size of an orange, but the most poisonous octopus alive.  We also saw seahorses and huge sting rays.  

Tomorrow, Gwen and Brian, will take us for a 10 KM walk.  It's a famous, gorgeous walk from the Spit to Manly.  It will take us near a lighthouse and along the water with gorgeous views of Sydney.  It's a famous walk, in all the tour books.  We will be warm though as it will be close to 90 degrees.  So we'll wear our new hats.

Wed morning the kids will have a surfing lesson.  Should be interesting!

Erik's been watching quite a lot of cricket.  Each match is 5 days long and about 6-8 hours a day.  I haven't been able to figure it out, but it's very popular here.

I hear it's snowing again in Portland.  It's quite hard for us to fathom that as this moment!  In fact, I think I'll go take a dip in the pool!  Hope to hear from you.  Just email us at nilsen6@comcast.net

Love,

Carla for Nilsen6

Our first 5 days in Australia!

Hi family and friends,

We are in Australia. It's amazing to us and hard to believe we are really here!!! I realized that I had plans to share my photos with those of you back home, but didn't have a plan to keep a journal. Several of you asked if I had a blog, I thought it was a good idea so here goes! I am hopeful that I will be able to keep up with this during the next four months!

Technology is quite wonderful. It's taken me a little while to figure out how to get my pictures to picasa. My Creative Memories software works best on PC, but Erik's laptop is a Mac, so we added parallel and made it a PC too. So getting the two to cooperate is hard for me to figure out. But I just added photos to my facebook and picasa web album. Check it out at http://picasaweb.google.com/carlanilsen

Our flight from Portland to SF, CA was uneventful. Getting our bags checked in and all was very calm. It was great. Thanks Linda and Edgar for taking us to the airport. Then when we got to SF they called Bryn and Ryan's names over the speaker. They told us that their visas weren't in the system. We panicked a little. They called Australia and found out that it said that they were only traveling with one parent and they didn't have record of consent from the other. We were never notified about this. After they talked with Australia, they were able to fix the problem. Whew.

We left SF at 11:30 p.m., we waited an hour on the ground for people coming late from Seattle. We had several extra seats next to us, which was wonderful for the 6 of us. Andrew and Kari and Erik took a Unisom and a Melatonin and slept lots. Andrew for over 12 of the 14 hours. I couldn't believe it and to be honest I was a little envious. Kari slept for 11 hours and Erik slept lots too. Bryn only slept about 5 hours and Ryan and I slept a little more than that. The trip wasn't as grueling as I thought. We are a day ahead here, 19 hours ahead of Portland. Since it's only 5 hours different, it isn't too bad as far as jet lag goes.

Jeff and Faye Robinson met us at the airport. Jeff went to Graceland with Erik's parents, Marge and Tore, and they have remained great friends over the years. Jeff and Faye are so generous to host us. It's not easy to have 6 people pile into your home. They have a great home, with beds for all of us, a salt water pool, wireless internet and a park right behind the house. They have been cooking amazing food. For New Year's day yesterday, we had prawns and oysters, and Pavlova for dessert.

We've played in the ocean 3 times, gone to a movie-Bedtime Stories, driven thru the Royal National Park and had a picnic, and gone to the fireworks at the Sydney Harbour. The trek to see the fireworks was "epic" as the kids say. Kari and Andrew headed down to meet up with some Graceland friends for the event. They went at 8 a.m. and got home at 7 a.m. They went on the train and bus and slept a few hours in the park where they were to let the train traffic die down and they walked about 6 miles home. We didn't have quite as long a day, we left at 3:30 p.m. and got home at 2 a.m. We waited on the sidewalk for about 7 hours to see the show. It was quite awesome. There were fireworks off the Harbour Bridge, by the Opera house and off 6 barges in the river and off of skyscrapers behind us.

We are loving being here and are learning some new phrases, etc. Love you all,

Carla J